The Day We Won

Cafe Locked Out

The day before I stood at the front gates of Epic Park as vehicles kept arriving from all over Australia. These vehicles were flying Australian flags, both red and blue and many of these flags were upside down, and or their vehicles’ windows were covered in slogans. Hands off our kids. End the mandates. Freedom.

As soon as they passed through the gate, a small crowd cheered and then the vehicle’s occupants cheered too. They had made it. They were here, the Anti Vax Capitol of Australia.

The next day, the day before the big march, this constant arrival of Australians became a tsunami. All day Epic Park’s main winding road was a traffic jam of cars full of people who had come here, from every corner of the country, to demand that the government return their freedoms and left their children alone.

Everyone who was here, these witnesses, kept stating that they had never experienced anything like this before. Many of them old people, and many of these were teary with joy, assured us that nothing like this had ever happened before. Not in Australia.

This was a Gathering of Guardians, the defenders of freedom. This organic, nationwide, communal protest was the birth of a new nation.

Once in, they set up their swags and tents, they parked their caravans or set up beds in their cars. And they did this without anyone telling them where to park. Together they just figured it out, and then, instead of awkwardly talking about the footy or the weather, they vigorously shook hands then went, ‘fuck it,’ before fitfully embracing. Then they asked each other if they needed anything. They shared food, beer and dope, and they laughed as they cried. And as the new arrivals told us where they were from, we all cheered, in this new city where there were no QR codes, no social distancing, and no masks.

For a moment the police tried to close the park, but it was a bubble in a storm. Our incoming numbers and passion were an unstoppable force, and once the gates were opened again, we re commenced the surge, and did so throughout the night and into the next day.   

The following day’s great march was just the party to celebrate the victory of Friday.

And the reason it was a victory was because we had answered the great question.

“What sort of future do Australians want?”

The answer? The Government, and the mainstream media’s propaganda machine could never compel this many people to make their way, out of their own pocket, to the Country’s Capitol, chanting “I really want to take the booster.”

The answer is clear. The people want Freedom. And the only temporary defense those in power have had to counteract this great and beautiful truth, has been to quibble about the numbers.

It appears, as always, courage is finally trumping fear.

Sadly, we will probably have to play out the rest of the game, which could take a while, but it is only for show, for like I said, and somewhere in the halls of power they have figured this out too, that in this war, that was brought to the people, we, the people have already won.

Michael Gray Griffith